Database migration is the process of transferring one or more source databases to a target data environment. There are, of course, numerous challenges encountered during a database migration that must be identified and addressed. Existing database migration techniques, however, are largely reliant on individual skill level, do not permit user specification of desired target data properties and do not achieve best practice configurations for targeted data and storage environments, tier alignment, or ongoing daily operations including backup and recovery, data manipulation, and general systemic maintenance. In addition, existing database migration techniques can result in inconsistent and poor results during actual migration.
A need therefore exists for methods and apparatus for migrating one or more source databases to a target data environment that identify such challenges and provide interactive and proactive analysis of the user-specified database migration configuration using a combination of gathered performance metrics, embedded and encapsulated best practices, and criteria selection. Yet another need exists for interactive database migration tools that automatically generate and tune a target data configuration using, for example, rules, best practices, tradeoff analysis and/or a holistic view of desired properties of a data environment.